Another
key company has been added to Intusoft's list of partnerships. ACME Magnetics
USA, located in Southern California outside of San Diego, and Intusoft
have joined forces to include ACME's ferrite materials and geometries
into Intusoft's Magnetics Designer product. ACME is one of the world's
largest producers of ferrite materials for the manufacture of magnetic
devices.

The
companies are aware of the need to represent magnetic materials manufactured
in the Asian territory since the vast majority of today's magnetic manufacturers
originate from that region. The collaboration consists of both marketing
and technical aspects. In the marketing domain both companies have put
the announcement on their respective websites, including links to the
partner's website. They are also informing their respective sales prospect
and customer bases of the developing relationship. Intusoft was invited
to share ACME's booth at APEC 2008 in February. The show enabled Intusoft
to showcase the new ACME ferrites in its Magnetics Designer product. In
time, more materials and geometries will be added into Magnetics Designer
by way of both companies' technical staff.

GCi
Technologies headquartered in Plano, Texas USA spawned the initial effort
to include ACME ferrite materials into Magnetics Designer. Richard Meyer,
engineering manager for GCi, was instrumental in supporting the collaboration
to enhance the speed in developing GCi's magnetic devices compared to
using spreadsheets. GCi has informed several of the companies for which
they do business about the Intusoft/ACME collaboration.

For
those not familiar with Magnetics Designer, the inductive-device design
system enables datasheet-like entry to generate a SPICE simulation model
and files for manufacturing. It runs on Windows 2000 through VISTA platforms.
Magnetics Designer creates many types of layer and sector/split bobbin
wound transformers and inductors. Its database contains thousands of cores,
a wide variety of materials and wire, and both linear and saturable-core
SPICE models. The program predicts magnetizing and leakage inductance,
inter-winding capacitance, peak flux density, DC winding resistance, high
frequency AC resistance (including proximity effects and skin effect),
AC and DC copper loss, core loss, weight, temperature rise, layer fill
and window fill percentage. More can be found at: http://www.intusoft.com/mag.htm.

Coming Soon: ICAP/4 8.x.11 Build 3247

Scheduled
for April, 2008 will be a new ICAP/4 and Test Designer software release.
Apart from refinement of the software from today's Build 3090, two main
features have been added to the software. The first feature is an arbitrary
piecewise linear (PWL) waveform creation capability by way of the mouse
or file input. From a signal source's Part Properties dialog, select "Tran
Generators" then PWL. Instead of typing in time and value data points
like before, you simply click on a graph (grid) to arbitrarily place data
points using the mouse. What's nice is once your arbitrary PWL waveform
is complete you can click anywhere in the grid and the waveform will conform
to that point. Further, you can also draw a bounding box around any portion
of the waveform, then drag and drop the bounding box to move the selected
waveform area, or press the backspace key to delete the data points. The
PWL tab supports undo <ctrl>+z and redo <shift>+<ctrl>+z.
You can also directly link to a .TXT file of data points using the "File"
tab. In all, PWL now has some very powerful and timesaving features.

Figure 1:

Example of creating PWL waveform by clicking on the graph.

The
second main feature in Build 3247 is an automated component conversion
capability from generic or real devices, to different real devices, which
are acquired from SpiceNet's parts browser. The new feature accommodates
resistors, diodes, capacitors, BJTs, JFETs, inductors, and MOSFETs. You
can quickly convert generic parts or many real parts, from a selection
of similar parts displayed in a dialog. Simply use hotkeys or menu pulldowns
to quickly place generic or real devices on your schematic. Double-click
on the part to bring up the Part Properties dialog. Select the "Part/Model"
tab to see all available parts of that type, select the specific device
you want, and press the "Replace" button - very convenient!

Figure 2:

Quickly replace already placed generic part with another part of the same part type.

Other
aspects brought forth by the new release include several improvements
to ICAP/4's Pspice-to-IsSpice4 Converter, and the addition of new simulation
models. Also, when holding down the Shift key to select multiple waveforms
in IntuScope, previously all of the round legend ID tags atop were solid
color, making it hard to distinguish which waveforms were selected. Now,
the ID tags will fill solid in color to show when multiple waveforms (or
single) are selected. Waveforms not selected will be grayed out. Once
waveforms are selected, the Backspace key can be used to delete them,
or they can be copied and pasted to a new plot.

Intusoft
has refined its website, starting from the home page at www.intusoft.com.
Take a moment to observe the streamlining of the home page, including
some new things. Other pages have been refined such as the products page,
SPICE modeling page, site map, and the top of the product comparison chart.
Check the homepage from time to time for new announcements.

Intusoft
to be Published in "Power Electronics Technology"
Magazine in July, 2008 Issue

Intusoft's
"Got Fault?" article was accepted for publication
in Power Electronics Technology magazine for July of this year. "Got
Fault?" was included in Intusoft's newsletter #80 at: http://www.intusoft.com/nlhtm/nl80.htm.
The version submitted to PET is a little different and more refined, so
it will be worth reading when it comes out. It will be available in print
and on the publisher's website at: http://powerelectronics.com.

For new users of
ICAP/4 and Magnetics Designer, a new software training course has been
developed for these products. Last year Intusoft revamped its entire
customer training material, basically throwing away the old format and
devising a very effective and comprehensive format, including several
labs. The ICAP/4 course is two days and covers SPICE history; windows
operations; schematic creation, layering and configurations; an array
of debugging operations; waveform viewing and signal processing; sweeping,
advanced simulation techniques, multi-run analyses such as Monte Carlo,
Worst Case, and Extreme Value; model import off the internet; model
creation; setting/recording of electrical measurements for charting,
including pass/fail against test limits; and more.

The
Magnetics Designer course is one day and covers all the features for
the design and simulation of inductive devices. The training covers
program history, design algorithms, parasitics, windings, wiring, materials,
core families, data entry, high frequency design & considerations,
optimization, outputs & interfaces, SPICE models, design examples
and more.

Customer
training can be obtained in three ways for ICAP/4, and in two ways for
Magnetics Designer.

ICAP/4

Intusoft will
travel to your site for training. The cost of all travel expenses
is added to the training cost, such as flight, hotel, taxi, rental
car, food, etc.

You can come
to sunny southern California to be trained. The cost is strictly the
cost of the course(s).

The third option
is discussed upon request and is subject to the amount of participants
you enroll. It is offered at a reduced cost.

For
both new and existing users of ICAP/4 and Test Designer there are innumerable
features and techniques for heightening your design's reliability and
speeding the design cycle. It's almost impossible to know every aspect
of the software, as it is incredibly extensive in its capability. You
may have never run a worst-case analysis on your design, or used the
innermost features of a Monte Carlo statistical analysis. New users
may not know the power and advantage of the blue IsSpice4 window environment
that comes to view during a simulation, and so on. Following are a few
tips to help make most use of your ICAP/4 tools.

Tutorials,
Manuals and Books

For new users, look at your Help pulldown menu in the SpiceNet design-entry
window. Here you will find under "New User" one or two New
User's Tutorials. The more advanced tutorial is provided with ICAP/4Windows
and higher offerings. Be sure to go through these to get a fast “readers
digest” roadmap to quickly becoming familiar with the entire design
entry through production-readiness flow. With the first tutorial you’ll
be able to use the tools with enough proficiency to enter designs, simulate,
view waveforms, and gain proficiency with other helpful functions.With
the second tutorial you will perform more advanced operations within
SpiceNet and IntuScope, plus set up electrical measurements with pass/fail
limits, run Monte Carlo statistical analysis, parametric component sweeps,
and add a new SPICE model from the internet.

Monte
Carlo "Report" Option

Monte
Carlo statistical analysis is used to randomly vary component tolerances
throughout their tolerance range, as any desired amount of simulations
are run varying the tolerances each time. Running the "Monte"
simulation script for SpiceNet's "Simulation Control" dialog
produces a family of curves, histogram bar-graph plot, and probability
density plot of the simulation results. A probability density plot shows
the measurement value (i.e., voltage at Vout), verses the deviation
(in sigmas) from a 0% tolerance variation. Also
located in the "Monte" dialog from IntuScope, is a "Report"
box (option). After a probability density plot is made, if the Report
box is selected, then in the SPICE output file and in IntuScope's "Output
Record" window the actual component values are displayed for the
Monte Carlo simulation run. For example on your Sample2.DWG drawing,
a Monte Carlo simulation was run for 6 cases (runs). Following is the
probability density screenshot and results from the report option. The
design signal selected for data recording is vpd and the function is
maximum voltage.

Figure 3:

Example of obtaining Monte Carlo Report

The
numbers shown under the "Parameter" heading represent the
components in the design (not all shown), and their value when signal
line vpd was measured at Cursor 0's point in time. This simulation plot
was titled "tran7" by IntuScope. Also displayed is the component's
deviation from zero tolerance change, measured in sigmas. 3-sigma represents
the device's normal tolerance value. If Cursor 0 is advanced to the
next dot (data point) in time, and the Report option is selected again,
then new component value data is displayed, and would be titled "tran6."
The process is helpful in ultimately refining component values to achieve
optimal circuit performance.

Recording
Electrical Measurements at Strategic Points in a Design Simulation

Have
you ever thought it would be nice to know for example the peak voltage
between two distinct points in time in a design's operation? Another
example might be the RMS reading between say 1.006 and 1.010 milliseconds
in time, or the rise time within a time interval. You might desire the
bandwidth between two points in frequency in an AC simulation. You could
achieve these sorts of things by continuously plotting waveforms from
simulation runs and calculating the desired electrical measurement at
strategic points on a time-domain plot , or calculating bandwidth based
on the roll-off from an AC plot. However, there's a much more convenient
and powerful way to achieve such tasks by using ICAP/4's scripting commands
and its Simulation Control dialog's "Measurements" tab.

Our
first example uses your Sample2.DWG drawing. From SpiceNet's "Simulation
Control" icon or pulldown, select the dialog box's "Measurements"
tab. The "Closed Loop+Tran" test setup is selected.
From the “Measurements” tab: the “Closed Loop” design configuration,
“tran” simulation setup, and “TRAN” transient analysis are selected.
The "ADD"
box is selected, then "Next." This brings the "Cursor
Wizard" to view. The "Help" box is next selected. Toward
the top of the help dialog box is this statement: The following
measurements can be made on the data in between the left (cursor 0)
and right (cursor 1) cursors:

The RMS function
is selected amongst many other choices. This brings up the following
text:

RMS

Format:
RMS(vec vector)

Parameters (1)

vector The plot
vector for which we measure the RMS value

Return Value

The RMS value
of the vector between the left and right cursors.

Remarks

Performs the
calculation by squaring the vector and integrating the result between
cursors to get the mean squared value; thus, accounting for the non-uniformly
spaced data.

Example

The following example
demonstrates the use of RMS

SetCursor(0,25n)
SetCursor(1,75n)
print RMS(Vout) RMS(V(3)) RMS(Vin).

As
you can see, the example makes it very straightforward to setup and
simulate the RMS value between two points in time. The print statement
at the end of the example does not have to be used. This is because
such design nodes and components (i.e., Vout, Vin, etc.) can be selected
by mouse click from the "Vectors" pulldown menu. The SetCursor(0,25n)
in the example, for instance, is prescribed by clicking on the "Cursor
Functions" menu pulldown, then typing in the time values in the
"Cursor Script" window just above. Finally, "Next"
and "Finish" are selected prior to running the simulation.
After "Simulate Selections" from the "Main" tab
is selected, the "Result" box can be pressed to see the desired
measurement for any design signal or device selected. From that point
on, any change can be made to the design, re-simulated, and the new
measured results charted from the Simulation Control's "Results"
dialog. This saves a lot of time interpreting gobs of waveforms and
doing calculations from IntuScope's Waveform Calculator to achieve similar
results.

In
a more complex script example, if you select the "Measurement Examples"
keyword from atop the "Cursor Wizard" Help window, you'll
find several examples of sophisticated types of measurements that can
be performed between points in time or frequency set by IntuScope's
cursors. One such keyword is "Bandwidth." An actual example
of this can be found in the BUTTFIL1.DWG file. Open this drawing and
in Simulation Control's dialog, select the "Measurements"
tab and you will find an actual "Bandwidth" measurement setup.
If you click on that and select the "Edit Test Group" box
to the right you can observe the bandwidth measurement setup. Also obtained
from the "Cursor Wizard's" Help box as before, the following
description of the Bandwidth script is shown for this example: "This
script measures the bandwidth, 3dB below max, of an AC plot. Vresult
is the vector for which we want the bandwidth. The result is saved in
bandwidth. The ??? in Vsignal must be replaced with the name of the
vector you want to measure (V(3), Vqe4, etc.)."